1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an Improved Timing Device used to automatically find the location points on the flywheel of an 8.2 liter diesel engine or any other engine utilizing a similar timing procedure. The invention is designed to aid the user in setting the valves and injectors of an engine to the original specification of the manufacturer by reducing the time required to determine the top dead center for each piston of a vehicle's engine before setting the valves and injectors, by allowing the user to position the location points of the flywheel, so the pistons are at top dead center without leaving the vehicle's compartment. The present invention thus eliminates the necessity of resetting by hand the location pin from underneath the vehicle for each of the vehicle's pistons.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When tuning an 8.2 liter diesel engine or similar engine it is required that the mechanic be able to determine the top dead center position of each of the vehicle's pistons. The conventional techniques for determining the top dead center of an 8.2 liter diesel engine required the use of either two persons or the movement of the one person (mechanic) between the top of the engine compartment and the vehicle's bell housing located underneath the engine compartment.
One such prior art technique using only one person requires the use of a prior art device commonly referred to as a "slug" which is manufactured under the trade name of "Kent Moore" tool, part number J-29139, which applicant shall refer to as a prior art "location pin".
The mechanic would first go underneath the engine of the vehicle and remove the cover plate over the hole opening in the vehicle's bell housing which allows access to the location points on the flywheel. Next, the mechanic would take a breaker bar with one hand and slowly rotate the engine after placing it into the socket located on the engine's damper wheel, while at the same time with the free hand he would feel for the location point recess on the flywheel with his thumb. Once, the location point was positioned over the bell housing opening the mechanic would insert and bolt unto the bell housing the location pin and return to the engine compartment to begin the tuning of the engine by checking and setting the valve and injector for the number one cylinder, utilizing a well known prior art timing tool, such as, a Kent Moore Dial Indicator.
After setting the valves and injector for the number one cylinder the mechanic would leave the engine compartment and go underneath the vehicle to remove the location pin from the bell housing opening and again using both hands (as above described) would slowly rotate the engine with a breaker bar until the flywheel location point for cylinder number three was positioned over the bell housing opening and again would insert into and bolt to the bell housing the location pin and then return to the engine compartment to continue with the tuning of the number three cylinder. The above described procedure is repeated for each cylinder of the vehicle until all cylinders with their valves and injectors have been set to the original manufacturer's specification. Once the tuning for all cylinders in firing order 1, 3, 5, 7, 2, 4, 6 and 8 has been completed the mechanic for the last time would go underneath the vehicle and disconnect the location pin from the bell housing opening and bolt the cover plate back into place.
It can be appreciated that the above described prior art procedure of resetting the location pin by hand for each of the vehicle's cylinders is both time consuming and works the mechanic nearly dead by the physical exhaustive efforts required to move between the engine compartment and the bell housing located underneath the vehicle. The use of my invention requires only two trips underneath the vehicle: first, to bolt on my Improved Timing Device and second, to remove it when the timing of the diesel engine is completed, thus reducing by approximately one hour the normal one and one-half hour time required to tune an 8.2 liter diesel engine.
Another example of a prior art procedure used to pre-set the pistons of an 8.2 liter engine its top dead center is to use an old style Kent Moore Dial Indicator. The mechanic would first remove the valve covers of the engine block and place the Kent Moore device over the vehicle's number one piston and rotate the engine with a breaker bar until said piston's followers descends 20-40 thousand to approximate the top dead center location of the piston. Next, the mechanic would go underneath the vehicle to set the location pin into the flywheel location point and return to the engine compartment to set the valves and injectors to the manufacturer's specification using the Kent Moore device. This prior art procedure is commonly referred to as Base Circle Timing.
Applicant made a time study comparing the use of the Kent Moore Dial Indicator in combination with applicant's invention and found that it took one hour and twenty-five minutes to tune an 8.2 diesel engine using only the Kent Moore device, while it only took twenty-two minutes to tune the same engine using applicant's Improved Timing Device in combination with the Kent Moore device. The large reduction in tuning time for the diesel engine was attributed to the mechanic only having to go underneath the engine twice using applicant's device, since the location pin could be set into the flywheel location points without leaving the engine compartment and without the use of the Kent Moore device to locate the piston's top dead center.